Jack took Kai back to his makeshift camp as he explained everything that happened. The compass leading him the wrong way, the encounter with the Spell Seeker, escaping into the dungeon, grinding levels to prepare for the dungeon break, the early break, and finally the fight with the Spell Seeker.
There were many questions he wanted to ask Kai, but the guy really didn’t enjoy talking, so he didn’t mind telling his story.
That didn’t mean he didn’t make some of his questions obvious in his statements like, “I got another class skill, that was surprising. It sure would be great to know what other things I don’t know about how classes work,” or “The break seemed to happen early. My math said it should have happened after fourteen days, but it happened in just over eleven. Isn’t that weird?”
When he was finally done telling him about the boss and how he wanted to kill it because of his skill The Long Game, he hoped the birdman would volunteer some answers on his own.
It seemed to have worked because the first thing Kai asked was to see his compass. The way Kai said compass struck him as very odd. He emphasized the first syllable far too much. Jack pulled out the small device and handed it over.
Kai gently turned the small round object over in his hands. He watched how the red needle would point towards the center of the dungeon, no matter how he turned it. “So this is the Com-puss. It was supposed to lead you north but instead took you here.”
“Yeah, you’ve never seen one? They are pretty common when I am from. They use a little magnet to point north. I assume dungeons somehow interfere with that.”
Kai shook his head and returned the compass. “I have been told of a device to detect dungeons before, but I have never seen one. I have not heard of anything called mag-net or a com-pass, although your translation ability does not seem to work on those words.”
Jack cocked his head in confusion. “My translation ability? Oh right, it’s easy to forget that we aren’t speaking the same language. That’s weird I wonder why they don’t translate. Since you’ve never seen one, maybe your language doesn’t have a word for a compass.”
Kai nodded in response but didn’t continue the conversation. He seemed to be thinking deeply about something.
It took a few moments, but Jack realized why Kai would have such an interest in the compass. “Kai, you know, if you wanted to borrow the compass sometime to scout out dungeon locations, all you have to do is ask.”
The birdman let out a click that seemed to be a mixture of frustration and annoyance, but it didn’t seem like the annoyance was targeted at Jack.
“You may not realize the value of the tool in your hand, but it is not something you let someone borrow.”
Jack let out a sigh. Of course, the guy who doesn’t even think twice about bringing home a stranger in need, won’t accept help from others easily.
Since the two of them were similar in that way, Jack knew exactly how to get Kai to accept being lent the compass. “Well, how about a deal then?”
Kai seemed to consider that. “A bargain would be acceptable. What did you have in mind?”
“I have two things I want. First, if you borrow the compass to scout out dungeons, I’d like you to let me know where they are as well. If this dungeon is any indication, there will probably be a few that the monsters are too low level for you to make any use of.”
Nodding his head in agreement, Kai said, “That would be easy to do. What would be your other request?”
Grinning because he knew the birdman would not like the second thing. “I want you to answer any and all questions I have.”
Kai closed his eyes and let out a click that sounded almost like a chuckle. “That certainly is a steep price for borrowing the compass.”
With the beak and feathers, it was sometimes hard to read Kai’s expression, but this time his eyes clearly displayed that he was smiling.
Holding back some laughter, Jack held out the compass, displaying it with a small flourish. “Well, you may not realize the value of this tool, but it’s not something I can just let someone borrow.”
“I can agree to those terms, but only if the questions are about the system or an aspect of the world that you do not know. We can decide when I will take it after you get to the herd.” Kai extended his scaly hand out.
Jack grabbed the extended hand. “Deal.”
There were multiple questions he wanted to be answered, but a growl from his stomach told him it could wait until after lunch.
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Jack stood to the side awkwardly as Kai inspected the body of the Spell Seeker.
Not long after killing it, Jack had summoned his inventory and stored the wolf. His inventory had grown quite a bit as he leveled up, giving him plenty of room for the body. Back when he was level three it was three feet long on each side, now it was eight.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Since his inventory kept the items from decomposing, the wolf still looked as if it had just died.
Poking around its spine, Kai said, “The skin is tough, it could make decent armor, and the fangs could be made into daggers. You said it still had mana in it?”
“According to Lucy, yeah. I can’t see it, but she’s shown me images of what it looks like.”
“Strange, a creature’s mana fades quickly after its death.”
“Could it still be in there because I stored it in my inventory?”
Kai shook his head and stepped away from the wolf. “No, the mana should fade in less than a minute. There are a few creatures whose mana does not disperse on death. Those creatures have mana in every part of their being. I have heard their bodies make excellent crafting materials.”
Glancing at Lucy then back at Kai, “Do you mean something Born of Mana?”
“That might be how the man described it, but I do not recall.”
“Ok, well the wolf’s Mana Absorption skill might have caused the mana to stay in the body.”
“I will have you take it to Tally, she would know its true value and she could craft something out of it for you.”
That seemed to be Kai’s final word on it as he turned away from the inventory. He made his way to a log and sat down. “We should start with your first round of questions, I know there will be many.”
Jack laughed, “yeah probably. So I figured I’d start with skills.”
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Jack had been impressed with how long Kai held out before he needed to stop for the day. Talking really took a lot out of him.
Before Kai tapped out for the day, Jack had asked almost every question he could think of about skills. Though he felt like he might have missed something.
Most of the information was confirming things he suspected. Like class skills and evolutions working in trees. While yes, they both work in trees, apparently evolutions get a little weird in certain scenarios. Mostly, it involved odd requirements letting you skip around in the trees.
The big thing about skill evolutions that he learned was that if a skill evolved into a new skill instead of just gaining an evolution, it was like that permanently.
For example, Lucy’s Hydraulic Leap skill evolved into Hydraulic Assist. If she were to reset the skill back to level one it wouldn’t revert back to Leap, it would stay Assist.
This had two big impacts on how Jack looked at skill evolutions.
First, he needed to reset any skill that evolves into a new skill. That way he can level it back up to five and gain another free evolution.
Like his staff skill, if he were to reset it now he’d get another free evolution at level five. He also didn’t need to worry about unbonding with his weapon. Apparently, weapon bonding is quite common and isn’t exclusive to that skill. A lot of weapon-based skills require you to have a bond with your weapon.
The other way this new information affected him was with how he wanted to use his Skill Evolution Tokens.
With how powerful class skills were, Jack didn’t think there was any reason not to spend all your tokens on those skills.
With evolved skills retaining their effects though, finding those evolutionary paths that change the name of the skill then resetting them was like gaining a free evolution.
According to Kai, that was a reason many people take more ‘known’ skills. If a skill’s evolutionary paths are charted out, then a person would know how to gain the extra power without years of trial and error.
Unfortunately for Jack, Kai had no information for most of his skills. Which made sense because of where they come from. Most people can’t learn skills from monsters. Kai did have a few people back in the herd who might be able to help him, like a woman who was bonded to a frog.
Another minor thing he learned was that most classes give you a total of five class skills. One every five levels after you gain the class. So humans gain one at level three, eight, thirteen, eighteen, and twenty-three.
Jack had gone through and read out the description of every single skill he had to see if Kai had any additional input.
Kai seemed to be most interested in hearing about his class skills. While the birdman was very excited about Mimicry, he even referred to it as a ‘meta-skill’ his reaction to The Long Game was shocked awe.
“Kai… Buddy, you ok?” Jack waved his hand in front of the wide-eyed birdman.
He snapped out of his daze. “Yes, sorry. Did you say it gives you a free attribute point? Not one in a specific attribute like strength?”
“Yeah, I take it by your reaction that that kind of thing is rare.” He knew the skill was good but did it warrant such a reaction?
“My great-great-uncle was known as the greatest warrior our herd had ever seen. He bonded with a rare type of cat called a lightning jumper. It was known for its extraordinary speed.” As Kai spoke, his voice gradually filled with passion.
“Through some unique circumstances, he unlocked a rare class that gave him the skill The Speed of Death. It required him to seek out and defeat fast creatures and rewarded him with Dexterity.”
Kia suddenly stood and swiped at an invisible enemy. “He could circle his enemies several times, slashing them to pieces before they even had a chance to react. There once was an unknown dungeon that broke while the herd was near, and he single-handedly defeated every monster before they reached the herd.”
“While his Dexterity was monstrous, most of it went to waste. His vitality and endurance were not high enough for him to take full advantage of his top speed. His perception was never high enough to react as fast as his body could. He often wished he could put the unneeded extra points into something else so that he would be more balanced. Your skill seems to be exactly what he wished for.”
Kai’s eyes were shining, and he looked much younger than his usual stoic self. After a few deep breaths, his excitement faded as if it had never been there in the first place.
Jack couldn’t tell if Kai was aware of how animated he was for those few moments. It would probably be best not to mention the cracks in Kai’s stone-faced persona.
Back to his normal near monotone voice, Kai revealed another drawback to the skill. “There was something about the skill that it did not describe. While all it said was to destroy a creature, it only counted as him destroying it if he had over a seventy percent contribution to its death.”
Letting out a sigh, he just knew there was going to be some catch like that.
The idea of gathering a large team of people to run him through dungeons had been in the back of his mind. Not that he had the funds or a real want to do that. It was just an option. Or not an option if the two skills really did have the same hidden requirement. Which he was willing to bet they did.
It did remove the idea of asking Kai to help with the boss, though.
Jack was about to move onto another question when he noticed the drained look on Kai’s face. Getting all excited must have burnt him out.
“Thanks for the information, Kai, it really helps. I think I’ll call it here for now and go get some training done.”